I had to ask the question dangling before my eyes. “I appreciate everything you’ve done to protect me, mom, but what if he finds me?”
She was quick to palm my cheek and giving me a wider smile. “He won’t.”
“How can you be certain?”
“Because I’ll stake my life on it. It’s the only way he’ll find out about you.”
I grasped the hand on my face and kissed it. “Don’t say that. Bhavna and Harsh are great but you’re my mom and I can’t lose you, not when we’re so close to being together again.”
“I know, sweetheart, and I promise I’ll do everything in my power to make sure we’re together again.”
“Is there anyone else that knows about me? Someone I can trust?”
She glanced over my shoulder. “Julian does.”
I turned, noticing the black-suited man with his hands laced in front of him, his head snapping from side to side before approaching us. “Hello, Gianna.” His smile was so warm, happiness poured through me.
I didn’t know how old he was but with the smidge of gray hair at his temples and mixed with the black in his beard, I figured he was around my parent’s age. Julian came to work for my father when I turned four. At first, he shadowed my father then six months later after a stalking incident, my father made him my mother’s bodyguard. That meant I saw him the most out of all the people that worked for my father.
“Hello, Julian.” I tried to call him sir a few times when I was younger and he’d wave it off with an offensive smirk, saying I made him sound old. There was definitely nothing old about him. With beautiful blue eyes and blond hair, his face was chiseled perfection and I’d seen the muscular frame beneath the dark suits. Plenty of girls my age would find the man swoon-worthy.
“How’s my favorite, gal?” He winked pulling me into an embrace.
I hadn’t understood the need for a bodyguard when I was little but now, I was glad he was around. Because he’d been in my life for so long, there were times, I wished he were my father. And during my mother’s visits over the years, the time we spent together felt like we were a happy family.
“Won’t the wife be jealous that I’m your favorite gal?” I teased.
“No wife.” He shrugged but I didn’t miss the look he lavished on my mother. It was a distinct tenderness I’d seen only in romantic movies—those that left you with a long-drawn-out sigh when the movie ended.
My heart gave a little jig of happiness that just maybe they were in love. After so many years together, who’d blame them. “Maybe you and Mom should marry and the three of us can run off into the sunset,” I blurted out.
“Gianna!” my mother scolded but the telltale pink of her cheeks was all the confirmation I needed that the thought had crossed her mind.
Julian’s chuckle was sexy as he ruffled my hair like I was an eight-year-old. I didn’t mind though, his affection was genuinely caring. “Phone.” He held out his hand. I handed over the burner and watched him take it apart before he crushed it and tossed it into a trashcan.
“Wow. What big muscles you have,” I rounded my eyes, mimicking shock.
Grinning, he tweaked my nose. “Come on, I feel like an ice cream Sundae, and I know your mom is craving a strawberry daiquiri.” He winked at her and she blushed before we began walking along the deck. Yep, there was definitely something between them and I loved it.
For their sake, I hoped I’d make it to my eighteenth birthday with my virginity intact, or better still, me giving it to a man who looked at me the way Julian looked at my mom. The chances of that happening were slim to none. I was a social outcast by my own doing and after what my mother divulged today, rightfully so. To meet a man like Julian probably meant I’d have to frequent clubs and bars with a fake ID. Given I was living a fake identity for so long, I was certain, I could pull it off. Only question was, where did I start. As Julian pulled me into an ice cream parlor, one name popped into my head. Ishara.
****
TWO DAYS LATER, I STOODin that same coffee shop, wishing my mother goodbye after having spent a beautiful weekend with her and Julian. I swiped at the tears on my cheek as my mother pulled me into a tight hug. When she kissed the top of my head and stood back, I hiccupped on a sob.
“We’ll be together soon, baby and we can put all of this behind us.” She ran a gentle hand through my hair, and I shivered, loving her touch and holding on to her scent.
“I can’t wait.” I sighed, trying hard to act like an adult and not a teen misfit.
She palmed my cheek. “You’ve been so good, baby and you might not understand this now, but sometimes you need to be bad to be good.”
“Huh?” I frowned and she laughed.
“I need you to be strong no matter what’s thrown at you. Promise me, sweetheart. You have to fight it all, it’s the only way you’ll survive anything to live the life you want.”
“I will, mom.”
After she left and Harsh drove me back home, my mind stayed in a constant whirlwind of what-ifs and how.
